New Year’s Day: A Grave Incitement

Beginning a new year should cause us to direct our thoughts to the future. What will it have in store for us? We give and receive many good wishes, but only the future will teach us if they will be fulfilled.

Let’s listen now to Peter’s sincere incitement. Having a great deal of personal experiences of life and faith, he directs us to some matters very essential for us as we travel to eternity.

The first is to be “sober.” Here he points to the evil of spiritual inebriety, although, of course, the physical abstinence of alcoholic beverages is included in this. Peter knew that people are so foolish that in their natural state they will indulge excessively and be unaware of their own and another’s foolishness.

How necessary to be made sober by the Holy Spirit’s work! We stand in need of coming to ourselves, like the prodigal son who, having been made sober by the swine’s husks, experienced initially that he had forfeited everything. Everyone living on the terrain of God’s church stands in need of this.

Consider for a moment the ten virgins of Matthew 25, five foolish and five wise. Even though they were traveling to eternity, all of them slumbered and slept. What a shock when they awoke and realized that some of them were unable to meet the Bridegroom! Hear the foolish ones calling, after they awoke, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” But... it was too late. And what about the five wise ones? Oh, they were not sober either!

There are many reasons why God’s people can be found dozing. Think of David—walking in the night on the roof of his palace, having lost his spiritual watchfulness, drugged as it were by sin. How necessary to be incited, “Be ye therefore sober....” Lot needed these words too when he surrendered to the devices of his own heart in Sodom, showing worldly conformity.

“Be ye therefore sober....” It’s even worse when we, by our personal spiritual haughtiness or as a result of the worship of men, think ourselves to be someone special; this will reveal itself in a spiritual sham. If so we need a double warning of, “be ye therefore sober.”

When Peter wrote these words, he spoke out of personal experience. When overcome by spiritual pride, he had once said, “Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee.” How this changed when the Lord caused him to become sober in Caiaphas’s room!

May the Lord make and keep us sober, and cause us to walk in the paths of His commandments with a watchful and prayerful life.

“Be ye therefore sober....” For the coming year this means to be watchful, to avoid an excess of food and forbidden beverages. How should this soberness be exercised? Hear what Peter says further, “and watch unto prayer.” To be on our guard? Yes, this has to be learned too. In Gethsemane the disciples had to learn that they, in their own strength, could not watch one hour with Christ. Therefore we have to pray watchfully. When the enemy approaches, the sentries are doubly watchful, having their weapons ready for use. Well then, the enemy, “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Therefore, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Matt. 26:41). God’s enemies were defeated also by a praying and watching Daniel. Prayer is one of the mightiest weapons the Lord has given His Church. Oh, how prayerless God’s people learn themselves to be! May Zion’s Intercessor put a royal assent upon His example of which we read, “And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly.” Being the ultimate and great Intercessor, He sits at His Father’s right hand, where He ever lives to make intercession for His people.

In beginning a new year it behooves us to consider what lies ahead of us. May the Lord make and keep us sober, and cause us to walk in the paths of His commandments with a watchful and prayerful life. May He help us to walk after Him who said, “Follow Me,” to follow in His footsteps in honor and dishonor, by evil and good report, in strife and in peace. “For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

Yes, let us pray, “Lord, teach us to be watchful; teach us to pray.” Our prayer will then be:

By Thy good Spirit led
From trouble and distress,
My erring feet shall tread
The path of uprightness.
O Lord, for Thy Name’s sake
Revive my fainting heart;
My soul from trouble take,
For just and true Thou art

— Psalter 390:3

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen